Mary Foster Rigby answered the phone when it rang. “Foster and Rigby,” she announced. “Mary Foster speaking. How can I help you?”
“No, we don’t have anyone here named Jack Foster.” As she spoke these words, the mind of John Rigby, her husband, leapt to instant attention. Who could be asking about Jack Foster, he wondered? He had been using that name secretly for some time.
After a pause, Mary said, “Yes, we’d be happy to discuss your divorce, Ms. Green. You’re Donna Green? When would you like to meet with us? Well, that’s a little irregular, but if it’s that important, of course, you can come right over.”
Donna Green! Alarmed, John began shaking his head violently from side to side. “No, no, no,” he voiced so that only Mary could hear. “Too busy, too busy!”
Ignoring his histrionics, Mary continued, “We’ll talk to you as soon as you get here.” She hung up and glared at her husband. “What do you mean, too busy? We need the money.” John sank morosely into silence but his mind was working like a trip hammer. He knew Donna Green. He and Donna had been seeing each other for several weeks without Mary’s knowledge. Why was she coming to the firm? He had not told her that he was the major partner in Foster and Rigby. She could not possibly know that John Foster and Jack Foster were the same person.
“You handle it, then,” he hissed. “I have bad vibes about this one!” He left the office and went to sit in the cubby they called the Conference Room. Mary stared after him with deep puzzlement. Why was he behaving like this?
Only a few minutes had elapsed when Peggy, the Rigby’s sixteen-year-old college student and part-time receptionist, ushered Donna Green into the office where Mary was waiting. Donna began by telling Mary that she was planning marriage with a Mr. Jack Foster, an attorney she had recently met, and that she needed to divorce her husband, Michael, as soon as possible. Michael Green was opposing the divorce, she said. she had chosen this firm because of the name Foster in its title. She had hoped that Mr. Foster was the same person she had known in their secret trysts at various hotels in the area. John could hear the conversation from the Conference Room and became riveted with terror. The meeting between Donna and Mary could have only one result, a result that the word horrendous could only begin to describe.
As Mary and Donna conferred, there was a phone call that was answered by Peggy at the Receptionist’s desk. John could hear the conversation and was horrified to learn that the caller was Michael Green. He had found out where Donna had gone and wanted to join in the discussion. Peggy told him it would be all right to come and sit in the Waiting Room until the firm was ready for him. John’s level of terror rose to a point he had never before experienced. He felt as if megawatts of electricity were encircling his body and squeezing the life from it like a python crushes a hapless victim.
He flipped the intercom’s switch to Receptionist. “Tell your mother I need to talk to her right now,” he ordered emphatically. Within a minute Mary received the message, excused herself and hastened to the where John was sitting. “Tell Mrs. Green there’s a conflict of interest,” he growled sotto voce. “We can’t do this one! I’ll explain after she leaves. Trust me!” With some hesitancy, Mary agreed and returned to the office where Donna was waiting.
John was not a praying man, but he composed a prayer as Mary talked to Donna. “Please God, get me out of this. I’ll never stray again. And help me find an explanation that Mary will believe!” He fully realized that his marriage to Mary was on the verge of obliteration
While Mary was carrying out her husbands dictum, Michael Green arrived and demanded from Peggy the right to join the conversation taking place in the office. “I can’t allow that,” Peggy asserted, “but you can talk to my father, John Rigby, who’s in the Conference Room. Come with me.” She led the way down a short hallway and opened the door to the Conference Room where John was cowering. Having a discussion with Michael at this time was the last thing he wanted; nevertheless, he entered into a labored conversation with him.
In the meantime, Mary was informing Donna that the firm could not handle the divorce. John was doing the same thing with Michael. It required profound statements from both advocates, strewn with lies and legalisms, but they were able to convince their visitors that they could not help them. Mary conducted a disheartened Donna back to the Waiting Room while, at the same time, John began leading a seething Michael to the same place.
Presently, there were five individuals in the Waiting Room: Donna and Michael Green, Peggy Rigby, her mother Mary Foster Rigby, and father, John Rigby (Jack Foster). Donna caught sight of John and cried out, “Jack! Jack, darling, what are you doing here?” There was a short period of absolute silence while everyone in the room evaluated the incontrovertible evidence that proclaimed exactly what John was doing there. And, it was very clear to John that God had not answered his prayer.
Characters in the Story
John Rigby, Partner in Foster and Rigby
Jack Foster, Pseudo name of John Rigby, Known by this name only to Donna Green
Mary Foster Rigby, Partner in Foster and Rigby, wife of John Rigby
Peggy Rigby, Daughter of John Rigby and Mary Foster Rigby
Donna Green, John Rigby’s lover, plans to marry John Rigby (Jack Foster) and divorce husband
Michael Green, Donna Green’s husband, opposes divorce